Blue Buffalo Allergies in Dogs

Blue Buffalo is a well-known brand of dog food that was founded in Wilton, CT in 2002. An allergy to a particular dog food is triggered when the immune system responds in a hostile manner to one or more of the ingredients that make up the food. Canines who develop food allergies experience itchy, inflamed skin and can also develop chronic disorders like ear infections, indigestion, and wheezing. Although rare in canines, anaphylactic shock may also occur with food allergies. Blue Buffalo carries a variety of different categories of dog food, some designed for allergy prone dogs.

Blue Buffalo pet food manufactures a large variety of dog foods. Some varieties of Blue Buffalo are more likely to trigger an allergic response in a sensitized animal than others.

Allergy related skin reactions are frequently located under the dog’s front legs, around its face and groin area, or between the toes. Although there are exceptions, most dogs who develop food related allergies do so after they reach three years of age. 

• Bald patches
• Chronic ear infections
• Chronic gas
• Chronically inflamed feet
• Coughing 
• Diarrhea
• Face rubbing
• Head shaking
• Hives
• Obsessive licking
• Paw biting
• Poor growth 
• Skin infections
• Skin rashes
• Vomiting
• Wheezing

Occasionally food allergies can induce a life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock, and it should be treated as an emergency if it does. If your pet exhibits the following symptoms, they should be transported to the nearest emergency veterinary clinic immediately as fatalities can occur within just 15 minutes.

• Cold limbs
• Coma
• Difficulty breathing
• Elevated heart rate
• Excessive drooling
• Lowered blood pressure
• Pale gums
• Seizures
• Sudden diarrhea
• Sudden vomiting

Types

Blue Buffalo manufactures some recipes that may be helpful for the allergic animal. These lines include:

• Grain free - A little over half of Blue Buffalo’s varieties are labeled as 100% grain free, making them an alternative for pets who are allergic to grains
• Limited ingredient - There are several limited-ingredient recipes manufactured by this company, including a puppy recipe, several small breed varieties, and wet food options
• Gastrointestinal support - This is a prescription dog food designed to maintain a healthy digestive tract, helping to prevent new allergies from forming
• HF Hydrolyzed - A prescription food designed specifically for the allergic pet; the proteins in the ingredients are partially broken down prior to inclusion into the food, which reduces the likelihood of adverse reactions

Approximately 60-70% of the cells that make up the canine immune system inhabit the gastrointestinal system. Food allergies are triggered by an antagonistic response of the immune system to a protein that has been ingested by the animal. Digestion typically breaks down the foods your pet eats into amino acids, which are the smallest building blocks of proteins. Typically, white blood cells called enterocytes absorb the amino acids so that they can be transported into the bloodstream. When proteins are not sufficiently broken down during digestion, the enterocytes identify them as intruders and instead of absorbing the fragments, they attack them. Repeated exposure to the allergen creates a response by the white blood cells that is both faster and more aggressive, causing the symptom to intensify. The foods most likely to cause an allergy for dogs include beef, dairy, wheat, chicken, lamb, eggs, and fish.

The skin related symptoms that are uncovered during the physical examination will most likely prompt your pet’s doctor to collect skin samples in the form of skin scrapings from any of the areas that are affected by the excess histamine that was released due to a reaction to an allergen. The skin scrapings will be expended to perform a cutaneous cytology. Cutaneous Cytology is a process in which the skin cells are examined microscopically in order to uncover any potential problems. The type of difficulties that are often during cutaneous cytology can include mites, signs of disease, or even yeast infections.

The exclusion of these kinds of conditions will likely lead your veterinarian to suspect a food-related allergy as the cause of the skin conditions, and an elimination diet will be implemented to confirm the allergy’s existence and origins. Executing an elimination diet is a process that involves changing the dog's food to either a diet of bland human grade food or to an appropriate hypoallergenic or reduced ingredient commercial food. Novel ingredients, categorized as proteins and carbohydrates that are not common in the dog’s current diet, are preferred for an effective elimination diet. A properly implemented elimination diet will cause the allergy related symptoms to fade over a few weeks. Once the symptoms of the allergy are extinguished, additional individual ingredients can be added back into the diet until the liable allergen is identified.

Although allergies to foods are not curable, symptoms usually cease within a few weeks if the allergen is removed from the animal’s diet. Elimination diets can be time-consuming, often requiring several weeks before it reveals the culpable allergen or family of allergens, During this period your pet may experience lingering symptoms. Corticosteroids may reduce swelling and antihistamines may calm itching, but these medications also tend to mask the symptoms of an allergic response, making it much more difficult to determine which ingredient or ingredients in your dog’s food is causing the reactions. Many veterinarians prefer to complete the elimination diet before recommending medications to combat the symptoms to more accurately diagnose the underlying allergy. Rashes that are caused by food allergies commonly develop into secondary bacterial infections, and antibiotics may be prescribed to fight the infection.

Once the identity of the allergen is clearly defined, the initial course of action is avoidance of the ingredient. Any exposure to the allergen can cause a relapse, so it is important to be vigilant about which treats and flavorings are allowed. Once a dog acquires an allergic reaction to one category of food, they become predisposed to developing new food allergies as well. Experts differ in their approach to this situation, with some advocating that your pet remain on a single source of food unless new allergy symptoms start to resurface, while others maintain that a steady rotation of three of four novel protein recipes is ideal.

For the elimination diet to successfully diagnose the allergy, several important points should be taken into consideration.

Each individual ingredient incorporated into your pet’s current food should be avoided when determining the most appropriate replacement food. The entire food family may trigger your pet's allergies, so switching from a beef diet to an avian source such as duck is likely to have more success than substituting another source of red meat like venison. It is imperative that you ensure that your dog complies with whichever new diet is chosen for this testing phase, and does not ingest anything except for the food selected for the elimination diet. A single treat with the allergen can cause a reoccurrence of the allergy. Sources to avoid may include:

• Cow hooves
• Flavored medications (including heartworm preventives) or supplements
• Flavored plastic toys
• Flavored toothpastes
• Leftovers
• Pigs Ears
• Rawhides
• Treats

Once you have identified the ingredient or ingredients to avoid, consider looking for a hypoallergenic dog food diet option for your pup.